A three-day strike by Haryana electricity department employees has plunged Gurgaon into a severe power crisis, leaving thousands of households without electricity and water while forcing nearly 1,800 manufacturing units to halt operations. The industrial action, which began Wednesday night, was initiated by the Haryana Bijli Karamchari and Engineers Joint Sangharsh Morcha to protest the Haryana Electricity Regulatory Commission’s (HERC) decision to grant a parallel electricity distribution licence to a private firm, Eleven Power, for Gurgaon and Nuh.
The disruption has crippled essential services across the city, which serves approximately 8.5 lakh electricity consumers. In residential areas like Sector 9A and Hari Nagar, families have faced outages exceeding 16 hours, leading to depleted water reserves as electric pumps and boosting stations remain non-functional. Residents have reported that official helplines and local electricity offices are largely unresponsive, with many staff members participating in the strike. In some neighborhoods, including Rajendra Park and areas near the railway station, frustrated residents staged road protests to demand the restoration of power.
The industrial sector has been hit equally hard, with manufacturers in hubs such as Sector 37 and Kadipur reporting that production lines have ground to a halt. While some businesses attempted to use diesel generators, they faced limitations due to cooling requirements and strict air pollution norms under the Graded Response Action Plan (GRAP). Deepak Maini, chairman of the Progressive Federation of Trade and Industry, warned that the prolonged stoppage could result in losses amounting to crores of rupees.
According to Chief Engineer PK Chauhan, approximately 98% of the department's workforce, including senior engineers, has joined the strike, making it nearly impossible to address the thousands of fault complaints received daily. While the Dakshin Haryana Bijli Vitran Nigam (DHBVN) has attempted to deploy some outsourced workers, they have struggled to manage the scale of the outages.
The Haryana government has publicly opposed the HERC licensing order and announced plans to challenge it before the Appellate Tribunal for Electricity (APTEL). Energy Minister Anil Vij stated that the government is against the privatization of the sector and has invited union representatives to participate in the legal challenge. However, union leaders, including Shailendra Dubey of the All India Power Engineers Federation, have demanded that the state cabinet issue a formal policy decision to rule out parallel distribution licences across the state.
As the strike continues, the government has directed officials to prioritize essential services such as hospitals and water supply, but residents and business owners remain in a state of uncertainty. Union leaders have indicated that they will decide whether to extend the agitation beyond October 24 if their demands for the withdrawal of the private licence are not met.
